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The focus of sustainable development goals (SDGs) is to promote the use of renewable energy so that countries can achieve better environmental quality. However, the progression is plodding, and still, 80% of energy comes mainly from conventional sources in developing countries. The implementation of procedures depends on the political attitudes, political stability, and quality of institutions. India has a diverse political structure ranging from central government to state government to local governments. In the late '80 s, India witnessed a stiff rise in regional and national political parties, which leads more political competition. This paper tries to explain the possible relationship between political competition and CO 2 emission in India. With the application of the time series non-linear ARDL (NARDL) model, this study tries to find the asymmetric relationship between political competition and CO 2 emission. In our empirical model, we also include other important elements of environmental quality like innovation and fossil fuel consumption. Empirical results show that political competition is asymmetrically related to CO 2 emissions in the long run. Fossil fuel consumption and innovation also have a significant relationship with emissions. Based on the results, a few policy recommendations have been discussed., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Population in South Asia is increasing ever than a faster rate, subsequently; food security, climate change, and capital intensive agro farming techniques are the prevailing challenges in this region. This is a tri-country penal analysis, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, and the study covers the data throughout (1973-2020). This study has used modern farm input data besides demographic variables in the study. In this study, we use panel data set, ARDL (PMG) approach, autoregressive distributed lag model pooled mean group, which is an extensively dynamic modeling technique for heterogeneous data. The results of the study explore that transition in the demographic pattern in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh is the real cause of low crop productivity and land intensification. Technology innovation is the only ray of hope to fulfill the food demand of the future ahead and climate agriculture practices can hamper the further deterioration of the small farmlands., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A key strategy for social development and sustainable urban expansion is building sustainable and affordable transport systems. In this study, we aim to test the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and reveal the impact of infrastructure investment in transportation systems in China, Turkey, India, and Japan over the period 1995-2020 on environmental degradation. According to dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) method analysis, per capita GDP and per capita GDP 3 have a significant positive impact on per capita CO 2 emission, while per capita GDP 2 has a significant adverse impact on per capita CO 2 emission. These results confirm the validity of the N-shaped EKC assumption, while inconsistent with the results of the FMOLS technique, showing that per capita GDP is significantly positive, while per capita GDP 2 and per capita GDP 3 have a significant negative impact on per capita carbon emissions. Moreover, as clarified by the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and DOLS methods, road infrastructure investment (RO), aviation infrastructure investment, trade openness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment (RA) has a significant negative effect on per capita carbon emission. Country-level estimates of per capita carbon emission-based DOLS strategies in the model show that only China and Japan have N-shaped EKC hypothesis. Road infrastructure investment, aviation infrastructure investment, and trade openness have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment has a significant negative effect on per capita CO 2 emission in selected central and east Asian countries. The latest electrified rail systems are well thought out and less polluting, so the contribution of rail infrastructure investment to the transport mix can support sustainable and safe transport systems at city center and intercity levels and reduce environmental pollution in central and east Asian countries. Moreover, the implementation of the basic environmental settings of trade agreements should be strengthened to condense the growing impact of free trade on environmental pollution., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years, environmental issues have become controversial, and policymakers are discovering new predictors of carbon emissions. Some economists/researchers have advocated for fiscal decentralization to improve the quality of the environment by offering more financial authority to provincial/local and sub-national governments. Therefore, this work aims to inspect the effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth and environmental quality in India by taking data from 1996 to 2021. This work applies both ARDL and NARDL econometric models for empirical examination. The findings of this study suggest that expenditure decentralization has asymmetric long-term and short-term consequences on economic growth, and carbon emission in India. The result of the asymmetric ARDL model also indicates that positive and negative shock in expenditure decentralization contrarily affects economic growth and carbon emission. Moreover, the positive and negative shock in revenue decentralization helps in reducing carbon emissions both in the long run and short run in India. These outcomes are useful for policy analysis from the Indian economic policy perspective. The study also laid out potential outcomes that may benefit India's local governments and central government in resolving the issues of economic growth and environmental degradation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Developing nations aim to industrialize and grow sustainably often ignoring the environmental consequences. However, few empirical studies have looked at the influence of industrialization-driven economic transition on carbon footprint in developing nations using a non-parametric approach. In this milieu, on the ground of Kaya's identity and the novel multivariate quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR) (extension of Sim and Zhou's (2015) bivariate QQR model), the present research studies the impact of industrial value-added (IGVA), population, energy intensity, and carbon intensity on CO 2 emissions in India. This study is one of the first in the literature to evaluate the industrialization-carbonization nexus in the context of Kaya's identity for the Indian economy utilizing an innovative multivariate QQR approach, which makes a methodological and empirical addition to the literature. The outcomes of the multivariate QQR technique demonstrate that economic and environmental development requires continual long-run strategies. The empirical findings revealed that there is no authentication that India's carbon emissions increased due to its industrialization, which exhibited that IGVA has a negative and significant connection with CO 2 emissions. In some quantiles, population size positively impacts CO 2 emissions. On the other hand, carbonization in the Indian economy is asymmetrically affected by GDP per capita and energy and carbon intensity. The quantile Granger causality study further supported the aforementioned results. The current analysis also offers policy suggestions for environmentally friendly sustainable economic growth and to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of India., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Green growth refers to the economic growth strategy, which is less detrimental to natural assets, predominantly the environment. Therefore, the main motive of investment and innovation activities should be to attain economic growth while sustainably utilizing natural assets. In this regard, we aim to explore whether ICT diffusion and financial development matter for attaining green economic growth in BRICS economies. The long-run autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) results show that internet development exerts a positive influence on green growth in four BRICS economies excluding India. However, the long-run estimates of mobile cellular subscriptions are positive only in Russia and China. On the other side, the increase in bank credit and insurance premium also contributes to the long-run green economic growth in almost all BRICS economies. Policymakers should focus on the increased use of ICT in the economy that would replace the physical resources in the economy with information resources. Besides, financial services should be provided to individuals and small and medium enterprises involved in green consumption and production activities., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 agenda hinges on attaining a sustainable environment with the need to "take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts". Hence, this study empirically revisits the debate on the effect of nonrenewable energy and globalization on carbon emissions within the framework of the Kuznets hypothesis using an unbalanced panel data from seven South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) covering 1980-2019. The variables of interest are carbon emissions measured in metric tons per capita, energy use measured as kg of oil equivalent per capita, and globalization index. To address five main objectives, we deploy four techniques: panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), feasible generalized least squares (FGLS), quantile regression (QR), and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS). For the most part, the findings reveal that the (1) inverted U-shaped energy-Kuznets curve holds; (2) U-shaped globalization-Kuznets curve is evident; (3) inverted U-shaped turning points for nonrenewable energy are 496.03 and 640.84, while for globalization are 38.83 and 39.04, respectively; (4) globalization-emission relationship indicates a U-shaped relationship at the median and 75th quantile; and (5) inverted U-shaped energy-Kuznets holds in Pakistan but a U-shaped nexus prevails in Nepal and Sri Lanka; inverted U-shaped globalization-Kuznets holds in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but U-shaped nexus is evident in Bhutan, Maldives, and Nepal. Deductively, our results show that South Asia countries (at early stage of development) are faced with the hazardous substance that deteriorates human health. Moreover, the non-linear square term of the nonrenewable energy-emissions relationship is negative, which validates the inverted U-shaped EKC theory. Overall, the effect of energy and globalization on carbon emissions is opposite while the consistency at the 75th quantile result indicates that countries with intense globalization are prone to environmental degradation., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

This research investigated the association between financial inclusion, energy poverty alleviation, and economic development in South Asian countries and found significant connections. In order to make multilateral conclusions, we have created a panel of data for nations in South Asia and estimated not only the dynamic panel estimation but also the panel unit root, Kao (1999) estimates, and the ARDL tests for each country. A significant association between financial inclusion and economic development and poverty reduction is discovered by using dynamic panel estimates. Economic development has also been shown to have a favorable influence on energy poverty alleviation. According to the findings of the ARDL analysis, financial inclusion has a beneficial influence on economic development. Financial inclusion and economic growth have reciprocal causalities in energy poverty alleviation, as shown by the study's testing of this association. As a result, it is acceptable to infer that financial inclusion favors economic development and poverty reduction in South Asia. The study also suggests the policy implications for stakeholders., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Climate action got attention from the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although a large number of studies are investigating the said phenomenon, however, the literature on the top five responsible countries is unable to evaluate the role of environment-related technologies (ERTs) and institutional quality (IQ). The top five consumption-based carbon dioxide (CBCO 2 ) emitting economies, i.e., China, India, Japan, Russia, and the USA, are considerable stakeholders in this challenge. To fill this void, with the latest data available from 1992 to 2017, short- and long-run relationships are estimated with dynamic common correlated effects estimator and augmented mean group in the framework of EKC hypothesis. Reported results indicate the negative effect of ERTs and IQ towards CBCO 2 , which means that adoption of ERTs and better IQ is supportive in controlling environmental degradation. Findings are also robust to the policy implications for the UN's SDGs., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The main objective of this paper is to look at how environmental degradation in the form of climate change and air pollution affect international tourism for five countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) over the years 1990-2019. Other independent variables include information and communication technology (ICT) and democracy. We also look at the role of environmental regulation to see the validity of porter hypothesis in the tourism sector. To achieve this objective, we apply a novel method of moments quantile regression approach as well as a robust causality technique. The result shows that at lower and medium quantile, CO 2 emission has positive impact on tourism while at higher quantile, CO 2 emission has negative but insignificant effect on tourism in BRICS countries. The result for PM2.5 is uniform across all the quantiles, showing the negative effect on tourism. ICT and human capital positively affect the tourism while democracy has negative impact on the tourism sector of the BRICS nations. The result also validated the Porter hypothesis for tourism sector. We conclude that tourism industry stakeholders and the environmental policymakers must work together to integrate tourism policies with BRICS countries' environmental conservation policies as part of the transition to sustainable tourism industry., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

It is need of the hour to investigate the impacts of climate parameters on agricultural production in a developing region of South Asia. Therefore, this work attempts to explore the climatic indicators on agricultural production for selected South Asian countries over the annual data of 1961-2016. This study estimates the impacts of rainfall, temperature, rural population, land under cereal production, and CO 2 emissions (ECO 2 ) on agricultural production. For empirical analysis, we applied second-generation unit root tests. After examining the order of integration of time series, we check for the co-integration among the variables. Before the co-integration test, we check for cross-section dependence among the variables. CD and LM tests confirm the existence of cross-section dependence. Afterward, we apply the Westerlund co-integration test to confirm the strong association among the variables. Further, we applied two methods for long-run coefficients of independent variables. Dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) tests were applied to cross-check the findings. Our findings show that rural population and rainfall are negatively associated with agricultural production. Moreover, temperature, land area under cereal production, and ECO 2 are positively associated with agricultural production. Our findings shed light on some important policy implications for South Asian countries., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Higher education is the refinement of teaching--learning and research acumen. It is the epitome of a learning system before entering the job market or venturing into new start-ups. Various studies indicate that the growth of an economy is positively associated with development in the higher education ecosystem. The state-run institutions have their inherent stereotypical challenges for propelling the essence of excellence. Barring a few, the mushrooming of private institutions has diluted its holistic objectives at par with the national standards. The quality outcome of higher education research brings momentum to all the development vectors across society, nation and the global community. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in developing countries have failed to secure top positions in various global rankings, causing concern for all stakeholders. This paper attempts to develop a comprehensive strategic model best suited to developing nations like India that can transform the higher education ecosystem par excellence to the apex institutions across the globe. The paper strongly suggests establishing a unitary institution that would pool the best talents from the existing HEIs through a stringent and unbiased scoring instrument that would augment the quality of life, resurgence of the economy, superior Human Development Index and sustainable development.

Environmental sustainability concerns are growing worldwide. Many recent studies have focused on key indicators of CO2 emissions, but less consideration has been given to human capital. This study examines the impact of human capital on CO2 emissions in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) economies from 1991 to 2019 using a nonlinear panel autoregressive distributed lag approach. Findings show that positive change in education has reduced CO2 emissions, while a negative change in education has increased CO2 emissions in the long run in a group of BRICS. Regarding economy-wise analysis, a positive change in education reduces CO2 emissions in Russia, China, and South Africa in the long run, but a negative change in education has an increasing impact on CO2 emissions in Brazil and China. The results of robustness are also maintained in group and economy-wise empirical analysis. Policymakers should develop the education sector infrastructure in order to support the decrease of CO2 emissions., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study investigates the effect of financial development and economic growth on ecological footprint by including non-renewable energy consumption and trade openness as additional determinants. For this purpose, annual data of 10 countries with the highest ecological footprint (China, the USA, India, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Korea, Turkey, and the UK) for the period 1992-2017 is used. The Westerlund and Edgerton (2007) Panel LM bootstrap test results reveal that there is cointegration between the variables. Additionally, the results obtained from the Common Correlated Effects (CCE) coefficient estimator show that financial development, economic growth, and non-renewable energy consumption negatively affect environmental quality by increasing ecological footprint. On other hand, the effect of trade openness on ecological footprint is found to be statistically insignificant. In addition, according to the panel causality test results, a unidirectional causality from financial development to ecological footprint is found while bidirectional causality between economic growth and ecological footprint exists. Therefore, it would be beneficial for policymakers in such countries to direct financial resources to green energy production and consumption and to encourage projects and practices., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years, South Asian economies have observed rapid urbanization along with expanding informal economy that poses a serious threat to environmental quality. This study examines the impact of urbanization and informal economy on the ecological footprint of selected South Asian countries. Results indicate that urbanization and informal economy increase the environmental degradation in South Asia and the estimates are statistically significant in the long run. In the short run, urbanization positively affects the ecological footprint in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal except India, while the informal economy also enhances environmental degradation for all the selected countries except Bangladesh. Most surprisingly, the interaction term of urbanization and informal economy has a negative impact on ecological footprint, and the coefficient is statistically significant as well. To combat the environmental issues in South Asia, detailed policy recommendations have been suggested at the end., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study analyzes the relationship between globalization, energy consumption, and economic growth among selected South Asian countries to promote the green economy and environment. This study also finds causal association between energy growth and nexus of CO 2 emissions and employed the premises of the EKC framework. The study used annual time series analysis, starting from 1985 to 2019. The data set has been collected from the World Development Indicator (WDI). The result of a fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) method describes a significantly worse quality environment in the South Asian region. The individual country as Bangladesh shows a positively significant impact on the CO 2 emissions and destroys the level of environment regarding non-renewable energy and globalization index. However, negative and positive growth levels (GDP) and square of GDP confirm the EKC hypothesis in this region. This study has identified the causality between GDP growth and carbon emission and found bidirectional causality between economic growth and energy use., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

With rapid economic growth, BRICS is facing enormous burdens of carbon emission and severe issues of income inequality. However, behind this economic success, the BRICS economies also face few thoughtful challenges to improve environmental quality by catching up the sustainable development goals. Consequently, the existing empirical research is concerned with the dynamic links between income inequality and CO 2 emissions by using the novel nonlinear ARDL approach, but small attention has been paid to the BRICS in literature. Therefore, we observed that a negative and positive change in income inequality has positive effect on CO 2 emissions in Russia and South Africa in the long run, although a positive change in income inequality has positive effects on CO 2 emissions in Brazil, Russia, and China, while a negative change in income inequality has negative effect on CO 2 emissions in India, Brazil, and Russia in the short run. Hence, the findings value specific attention from policymakers in BRICS economies., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Among the environmental economics research issues, the issue of convergence has received quite a lot of attention, which is also known as stationary analysis. In this research strand, whether shocks to the time series variable are permanent or temporary is tested via the unit root tests. In this study, based on the theory and empirical works of stochastic convergence, we evaluate the convergence for the BASIC member countries, including Brazil, South Africa, India, and China. We use a variety of methodologies to see whether the convergence of ecological footprint holds for these countries or not. We first use the wavelet decomposition technique to decompose the series into the short run, middle run, and long run, and then we run several unit root tests to confirm the stationarity property of the series. The methodologies implemented in this study allow us to apply econometric tests to the original series as well as to the decomposed series. The results of panel CIPS test demonstrate that the null hypothesis of unit root could be rejected for the short run but not for the middle and long run, implying that long-lasting impact might prevail due to any shocks to the ecological footprint in the middle and long run. The results for individual countries varied., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The current study is designed to analyze the relationship between, environmental innovations, globalization, financial development, and CO 2 emissions in the South Asian region over the period of 1996 to 2019. In this regard, the role of governance is also incorporated as a moderator along with Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The sample size includes Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The results of the robust least square show the validity of EKC in the sample countries. Environmental innovations show desirable results on CO 2 emissions, while globalization, financial development, and governance are increasing environmental degradation. The role of governance as a moderator is only effective and favorable with environmental innovation. However, in the case of globalization and financial development, governance appeared to be ineffective in lessening the rate of emissions; rather, it contributes to emissions. It clearly shows the missing link in formulating coherent policy to achieve sustainability targets. Therefore, it is desirable to improve the role of governance with respect to environmental policies not only to handle directly environmental issues but also indirectly while promoting the process of globalization and financial development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A key factor in social development and sustainable urban expansion is the establishment of sustainable and affordable transport systems. This study aims to investigate the impact of transport infrastructure investment on environmental degradation and economic growth and to test the validity of the EKC hypothesis in China, India, Russia, and Japan over the period 1995-2020. The results show that GDP has a significant positive effect, and GDP 2 and GDP 3 have significant adverse effects on environmental degradation, respectively. These results confirm the validity of the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in selected emerging Asian economies. Rail infrastructure investment has significant adverse effects, while road infrastructure investment and aviation infrastructure investment have significant positive effects on environmental degradation. Likewise, the impact of investment in transport infrastructure system (roads, rail, and aviation) on economic growth is positive and statistically significant. Country-level estimates confirm the validity of the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in China, India, and Russia, while the N-shaped EKC is only valid in Japan. Investments in rail infrastructure based on modern rail systems that run on electricity are believed to be less polluting in the transport mix, help create sustainable and safe transport systems, and reduce emissions at the urban and intercity levels in emerging Asian countries. In addition, the growing impact of free trade on environmental pollution should be strengthened to harmonize the strict enforcement of environmental conditions dominated by trade agreements., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Since developing countries experience economic and environmental sustainability challenges, it is desirable digging into the linkages between economic and environmental parameters. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory (i.e., the inverse U-shape connection between real GDP per capita and per capita carbon dioxide emissions) in the sample of 11 developing countries. By using balanced annual panel data in the period between 1992 and 2014 and two alternative estimation techniques, we explored the potential inverted U-shaped linkage between carbon dioxide emissions and real GDP per capita in the sample of interest. For analysis purposes, Pedroni and Westerlund co-integration techniques are employed. Then, fully modified ordinary least squares, pooled mean group methods are applied for long-run parameter estimations. And, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality approach is employed for causal directions. Firstly, this work's findings provide the supportive evidence to the inverse U-shaped linkage in the long-run, indicating that an increase in real GDP per capita and electricity consumption tends to mitigate long-run carbon dioxide emissions in the developing countries, for the whole sample. Secondly, the country-specific findings suggested the presence of EKC theory for Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, the Russian Federation, Thailand, and Turkey. It implicated that these countries are on the path of attaining environmental sustainability in the long-run. However, Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa failed to lend credence to the EKC theory. It manifested that these countries need to design strategies directed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from economic activity and electricity generation through efficiency improvement or promotion of renewables. Finally, bidirectional causal links are observed among all the variables of interest. The findings suggest that country-specific targeted action plans should be implemented to ensure the environmental sustainability in the developing world.

Over the period 1980-2016, this study looks into the causal relations between carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, energy consumption (EC), foreign direct investment (FDI), and gross domestic product (GDP) in five South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). To achieve the research objectives, panel unit root tests, panel co-integration, autoregressive distributed lag model, and Granger causality tests are used. In the long run, GDP has a positive impact on CO 2 emissions, while squared GDP has a negative impact, confirming the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. However, in the short run along with these two countries, Bangladesh also confirms the EKC hypothesis. Among these five countries, Bangladesh and Nepal support the pollution haven hypothesis, but India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka support the FDI halo hypothesis. The EC has a large positive impact on CO 2 emissions across five countries. In the long run, the Granger causality test confirms one-way causation from EC to CO 2 emissions and bidirectional causality of FDI and CO 2 . These countries might encourage clean energy technology through FDI without jeopardizing GDP and environmental quality. The findings of the study provide a guideline for these countries to reduce CO 2 emissions, achieve a long-term green GDP, and combat global warming., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

We examine the linkages of economic freedom (ECF), energy use, and CO 2 emissions in selected South Asian countries of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Annual data from 1995 to 2018 are analyzed by employing second-generation methodologies. Cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) is used because this method incorporates the cross-sectional dependence among the data. This work uses three models, where the dependent variables are gross domestic product (GDP), CO 2 emissions, and energy use. The findings reveal that ECF and energy use contributes to more economic development. ECF is improving air quality by lowering CO 2 emissions. The findings suggest that these countries need to increase the percentage of renewable energy in their energy generation mix. At the same time, there is a need to integrate ECF with environmental awareness programs. This will not only increase air quality but also increase economic growth. GDP is found to be dependent on energy use; however, increased energy use from non-renewable also contaminates the environment. Therefore, South Asian countries need to invest more in research and development projects to promote renewable energy., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China and India are the largest coal consumers and the most populated countries in the world. With industrial and population growth, the need for energy has increased, which has inevitably led to an increase in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions because both countries depend on fossil fuel consumption. This paper investigates the impact of energy consumption, financial development (FD), gross domestic product (GDP), population, and renewable energy on CO 2 emissions. The study applies the long short-term memory (LSTM) method, a novel machine learning (ML) approach, to examine which influencing driver has the greatest and smallest impact on CO 2 emissions; correspondingly, this study builds a model for CO 2 emission reduction. Data collected between 1990 and 2014 were analyzed, and the results indicated that energy consumption had the greatest effect and renewable energy had the smallest impact on CO 2 emissions in both countries. Subsequently, we increased the renewable energy coefficient by one and decreased the energy consumption coefficient by one while keeping all other factors constant, and the results predicted with the LSTM model confirmed the significant reduction in CO 2 emissions. Finally, this study forecasted a CO 2 emission trend, with a slowdown predicted in China by 2022; however, CO 2 emission's reduction is not possible in India until 2023. These results suggest that shifting from nonrenewable to renewable sources and lowering coal consumption can reduce CO 2 emissions without harming economic development., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent literature, scholars discussed the role of export diversification in environmental quality. However, most studies analyzed the role of export diversification in influencing carbon dioxide emissions with mixed results. However, since carbon dioxide emissions specifically capture the environmental effects of energy utilization, a change in the level of carbon dioxide emissions cannot be regarded as a comprehensive measure of environmental deterioration. Also, many previous studies use the original form of the Theil index to measure export diversification, and during the interpretation of the results, they disregard the fact that the lower value of the Theil index indicates higher diversification and vice versa. In this context, to address these gaps in the literature, a study on the contribution of export diversification in ecological footprint is necessary to understand the ecological impacts of export diversification. Therefore, this study analyzes the contribution of export diversification in ecological footprint covering the period between 1965 and 2017 using the STIRPAT model in the context of India which is required to fulfill the demands for resources of over 1.3 billion people. The study relied on the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis framework to understand the role of export diversification in ensuring environmental sustainability. Using the newly developed Augmented ARDL test, the study established that variables of interest are cointegrated. In the long-run estimation, export diversification reduces the ecological footprint of India and helps establish the inverted-U-shaped nexus between ecological footprint and economic growth. Thus, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis was evidenced to hold for India. This important finding divulges that India can control the level of environmental footprints, and therefore decrease environmental degradation by continuously increasing export product diversification. Also, India is on the right path to achieve a reduction in ecological footprint associated with more development when accounting for export diversification in the model. Moreover, energy intensity boosts environmental deterioration, while population density reduces it. Finally, the study discusses strategies to achieve environmental sustainability through increasing export diversification., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The objective of this study is to contribute to the existing debate of green economic growth by empirically investigating the role of cleaner energy production, green innovation, and green trade in green economic growth in the context of South Asian countries. For this purpose, the study collects the data of South Asian Economies for 2000-2018 from different sources such as world development indicators (WDI), International Energy Statistics (IES), and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics. The study applied Pesaran's (2007) second-generation unit root test to test the stationarity of the data. Wasteland's (2007) test of cointegration was applied to examine the long-run association among modeled variables. The study confirmed the long-run association among modeled variables that turn to be stationary at the first differences. Moreover, the study applied fully modified least square (FMOLS) and dynamic least square (DOLS) to estimate the empirical results of the study. Results of the study show that the production of clean energy, green innovation, and green trade positively contributes to the green economic growth of South Asian Economies Graphical abstract., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental pollution caused by carbon emissions is an emerging issue to study among researchers. The nexus between environmental pollution and carbon emissions has motivated researchers to evaluate the impact of cleaner energy on carbon emissions. This study further contributes to the research by examining the above relationship by studying the asymmetric influence of nuclear energy (NE), industrial productivity (IP), and economic growth rate (GDP) on carbon emissions (CO 2 ) in India from 1975 to 2018 using the asymmetric autoregressive distribution lag approach. The results of the bound test and the Wald test show that in the long run, there is an asymmetric relationship between CO 2 , NE, GDP, and IP, and in the short run, there is a symmetric relationship between CO 2 , GDP, and IP. The result implies that increased usage of nuclear energy over fossil fuels and improvement in industrial productivity, in the long run, reduces CO 2 emission in India. Furthermore, the study concludes that the government should consider the asymmetric relationship between the variables and devise appropriate policies to increased nuclear energy and industrial productivity in India for environmental sustainability., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study examines links between Morgan and Stanley capital Investment (MSCI), foreign direct investment (FDI), renewable energy, urbanization, and trade openness on environmental degradation in (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) BRICS countries. In this study, generalized method of moment (GMM) estimation is applied on a data set ranging from 1993 to 2018. Results illustrate that stock market index price (MSCI) has negative relationship on CO 2 emissions in India, China, Russia, and South Africa and has positive relationship in Brazil. One possible reason for this is strong environmental regulations and their enforcement by Brazilian government. The study also finds that trade openness, FDI, and urbanization have a significant positive relationship on environmental degradation. The impact of stock market development on environmental degradation varies among BRICS countries. Our outcomes have significant policy implications. For example, the policy makers have to initiate effective strategies to promote the renewable energy sources to meet the increasing demand for energy by replacing the use of conventional energy such as coal, gas, and oil. This will help to reduce the CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel and ensure sustainable stock market development in the BRICS nations. BRICS countries who have taken the initiative and formulated policies for businesses to conserve the environment play a positive role compared to those who do not.

Field of education is associated with herculean task and innate responsibility of escorting societies forward. Across space and time, it has been an unambiguous synthesis that education should precede any progress or change. It helps humans to understand themselves and better their interaction with rest of the society. Hence the field of education and dissemination of knowledge is very much a pivotal entity in the evolution of human civilisation. No country in the globe over centuries could afford to flourish on the paths of growth and development while ignoring the crucial role of education. Country like India where in there has been a perpetual struggle over the decades to overcome perils of colonisation and social stigmatisation reflective in terms of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. In order to overcome these bottlenecks 'knowledge dissemination' must spearhead the change. Apart from other funding inadequacies, infrastructural lacunae, education sector in India has also been grappling with certain innate contradicting and counterproductive structures. Hence in this paper we have made an effort to address and assess the nature and impact of these dichotomies over the field of Education in India.

The paper critically dissects the contemporary policy landscape and its ability to counter precarious work for construction workers in the Indian context. By focusing on the governance challenges faced by welfare institutions and the pre-existing fault lines exposed by the pandemic, the paper argues that social policies are languishing and inefficient to respond to the challenges of growing precarity. The paper uses Breman's conception of 'Footloose labour' to understand informality related to construction workers and Gilbert and Terrell's social policy analytical framework to understand the institutional response. The two major arguments that make the social policy languish are the inability of the policy to alter neoliberal employment relationships and the operational challenges that institutions face in implementing welfare schemes for many footloose labourers. Moreover, the situation is further exacerbated by inherent contradictions of the state which is entangled between promoting economic growth through neoliberal policies while consecutively ensuring labour welfare. If the Institutional challenges persist along with the persuasion of neoliberal reforms, footloose labour is only going to be further marginalized and pushed to limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial inclusion has done its best across the world to bring unbanked people to the mainstream of financial and banking services. However, the metamorphosis is slow and needs some shots in the arm. This paper attempts to explore ways to expedite the process of economic development of the poor through financial inclusion. A newer technology, Open API for banking (OAB), can support financial inclusion for economic development and the growth of the poor. There are two main reasons for the success of OAB. Many mobile-based applications use OAB. Therefore, OAB can easily piggyback on the success of mobile penetration. The meager cost and simple technology of OAB is another reason for its success, primarily when OAB is aimed at unbanked people of the world. Structured Equation Modelling is applied to successfully and empirically test the mediation role of OAB between financial inclusion and economic development of the poor. OAB is found to have complete mediation. This work is the only study that links OAB with financial inclusion and the economic development of the poor. OAB stands out among all the other digitalisation tools of financial services due to its exclusive features. OAB has considerable implications to expedite the execution of financial inclusion for the economic development of the poor. But, to extend its full impact on the economic development of the poor, OAB should be clubbed with financial inclusion as a policy. Otherwise, a good opportunity will remain confined mostly as an effective solution for digitalising payment services. The digital divide is supposed to be bridged by OAB. However, this paper has not addressed this issue empirically. Besides this, the synergetic effect of FI and OAB, which is strongly recommended in the study, needs empirical testing. Both the limitation of the study is the future scope of the topic. No other study was observed on the topic, where OAB is suggested to bridge the gap between financial inclusion and economic development of the poor. The study has immense potential to change the course of action of the policy on Financial Inclusion. Using the findings of the study, the policymakers can embark upon using the new innovative technology in a more concerted way for the social upheaval of the poor in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has achieved massive economic progress in the past few decades, along with population explosion and rapid urbanization/industrialization, the effects of which are being realized across the world in the form of global climate change with huge environmental impact. Though climate change is a natural phenomenon, the release of several greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere through human activities has made a greater contribution to global warming. The present paper is a review of Indian climate features/trends and their consequences across the country. Recent countrywide trends in some selected climatic parameters like rainfall and temperature have been depicted. India is an agrarian country and is exposed to various hydro-ecological vulnerabilities, particularly successively occurring, extreme, climatic hazards like drought, flood and cyclone. Based on some indices, possible vulnerable areas due to the effect of climate change have also been depicted. Although the analyses are based on national level secondary data on selected parameters, some region-specific micro-level studies may better reveal the significance of these vulnerabilities. The present paper an attempt to map the climate variability across the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introductory paper of the Special Issue, we explore how India's political economy is moving in a new direction by focusing on three key political economy issues: development, welfare, and governance. India has undergone a substantial political transformation in recent years, especially since Bharatiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi formed the first majoritarian government in three decades in 2014. In this paper, we first demonstrate that this political transformation has a significant impact on the Indian political economy, given that the country is witnessing the rise of a new developmentalism, a new welfarism, and the new modes of governance. After that, we summarize the collections of articles of the Special Issue and situate them in relation to our central theme, new directions in the Indian political economy. This paper, and this Special Issue more broadly, seeks to contribute to the existing literature by introducing new analytical frameworks to understand recent changes in the Indian political economy and providing new empirical evidence on this topic drawing on content analysis and field research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to provide a critique of the institutional framework of the National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL), India's "bad bank." Design/methodology/approach: The approach followed is the development of an economic model of the gains to trade of an Asset Reconstruction Company. Findings: Using an economic model, the paper shows that the rules of the game create an uneven playing field and are likely to lead to a systematic overpricing of nonperforming loans (NPLs). While this might increase the upfront cash received by the bank, it will come at the cost of higher liabilities for the government on account of the sovereign guarantee that is part of the proposed structure. The overpricing is also likely to act as an obstacle to efforts aimed at the revival of the distressed company. The NARCL could become a warehouse for NPLs subverting the objective of reconstruction. Practical implications: Solutions to create a vibrant market for NPLs are proposed. Originality/value: The Indian case is unique in the sense that a bad bank backed by the government has been introduced after almost two decades of the existence of similar entities in the private sector. To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first that addresses the design of such a market using economic modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the complex interplay between economic development and environmental sustainability in the context of India's pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It examines the inherent contradictions and trade-offs involved, particularly in agriculture, industrialisation, and infrastructure sectors. The paper highlights how economic growth, essential for improving living standards, often conflicts with environmental objectives. The paper underscores the importance of integrating economic, environmental, and social objectives to achieve a sustainable and inclusive future for India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies have examined only the unidirectional impact of cultural diversity on the economic performance of countries, regions, and cities, not the other ways. They have assumed the diversity as given, while it may also grow, due to in-migration of workers and entrepreneurs, with economic growth and may be dependent on it. This paper models diversity and economic growth in a bi-directional causal frame and demonstrates that economic growth has a substantial impact on religious, language, and overall cultural diversities in the major states of India. However, the Granger causality between economic growth to language diversity and overall cultural diversity is found to be stronger and more widespread across the states than the causality from economic growth to religious diversity. The findings of this paper may have significant theoretical and empirical implications, as mainly the unidirectional way the impact of cultural diversity on economic growth has been advocated and the empirical studies have been modelled to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 10 aims at reducing inequalities in different aspects. The Niti Aayog of India has been monitoring progress achieved by different states and sets out a collaborative agenda. This paper specifically looks at the trends in Gini coefficient in different states, impact of high-income inequality on index of health in developed economies and how political ideology and progressive taxation policy can play a decisive role in thwarting the present disturbing trends. The paper brings out how income share of the 40% middle class in national GDP has come down after economic liberalization, while the share of top 10% has gone up significantly. In developed countries, acute income inequality seems to dampen the index of health and general well-being. The paper looks at Kuznet's inverted U curve hypothesis, which contends that after achievement of a high level of per capita income, inequality will come down, was proved to be un-true by Thomas Piketty. The paper brings out, how the Laffer Curve (1986) mooted by Arthur Laffer provided the economic justification for bringing down tax rate on top rich from 71% to 35% in the USA. The paper rebuts the general assumption that high tax rates would disincentive investment. The author recognizes that substantial increase in tax rates and high wealth tax in a market oriented political economy may not be a feasible proposition. In order to achieve distributive justice, greater attention to tools like progressive taxation, increasing investment in merit goods and ensuring shared prosperity must be seriously addressed. Also, a more proactive approach towards tax collection, rather than increasing borrowing would help to reduce income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of institutions indicates the level of economic development in the country. Institutions are a part of a system that is based on human interactions and that leads to the generation of incentives. These incentives can deal with uncertainties and foster economic, social, political growth, provided the human interactions are moderated well. This paper reflects on the strength of the interventionalist institutions like cooperatives in India and promotes institution building for a better future. The base of the paper focuses on the lessons learnt from dairy cooperatives in Gujarat state and discusses the current situation of the cooperatives and challenges faced by them. The cooperatives in India have been old institutions with a great history of success as also failures. Though there are various types of cooperatives in India, the dairy cooperatives have been able to gain more attention in the international market due to the Operation Floods I, II, and III. India has secured its position as one of the largest milk producers in the world. At present, India produces 20% of the total milk production in the world. This paper is a blend and analysis of theoretical perspectives and ground realities of the dairy cooperative sector in India. The paper follows theoretical perspectives from institutional theory to analyse the present scenario of dairy cooperatives in India. It addresses the gaps in the dairy cooperative development sector with an in‐depth analysis of ground realities and contributes to future policy formulation and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to verify whether the transportation infrastructure investment carried out by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has promoted the economic development of its recipient countries. Since the establishment of the AIIB, its investments in infrastructure development, aimed at promoting economic growth in Asian developing countries, have garnered considerable attention. This study selects India, the largest recipient country of the AIIB, as the research object and chooses the Gujarat Road Project as the research case, since it is a completed infrastructure construction investment project in the transportation field. This paper provides an overview of the project's operation and summarizes key factors in the project's implementation. In the data analysis section, the per capita GDP is selected as the explained variable to measure economic development, and the LASSO regression method is used to select several variables that affect economic development. Moreover, the random forest model is used to obtain the causal relationship between road construction and the per capita GDP from 2001 to 2022. The results indicate that road construction in India has a significant positive effect on per capita GDP growth, the Gujarat Road Project supported by the AIIB also has a positive effect on per capita GDP growth, and this effect is stronger than that at the national level. The main contribution of this work is the validation of the investment strategy of the AIIB and the quantification of the economic contribution of AIIB investment projects to the local area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indo-Pacific region is believed to be of immense strategic significance given the dynamism of the region in propelling economic growth and cooperation between nations. However, the region has attracted significant attention from major powers and is being reimagined as a contested geo-political space. The emergence of the term has led to a restructuring of the popular perception in which the world has traditionally and strategically perceived this geographical area. This paper delves into the manner in which the India and Australia as important actors in the region conceptualize the 'Indo-Pacific' and how it has shaped India-Australia relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic profile of women in any country reflects the overall status of women. Economic development of any country significantly depends upon the participation rates of its women. Women's empowerment is crucial for raising their living standards and well-being. India is a country of diversity regarding the wide geographical, cultural and social variations. Haryana is known as one of the developed states of India, but even then there is prevailing much gender-based inequality and male dominance in all dimensions of life. The position of women in Mahendergarh district of Haryana is no better than the other districts of Haryana. The objective of the paper is to understand the demographic profile of women status in Mahendergarh District, Haryana as per Census 2011. It reveals the three main indicators sex ratio, women literacy and her work participation in the process of their empowerment with special attention to the gender perspective. This paper will examine the regional disparity of sex ratio, literacy rate and female work participation and the improvement of empowerment of women in the Mahendergarh district state of Haryana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India aims to become the world’s third largest economy (US$ 5 trillion) by 2025, a dream which was derailed to a certain extent because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several ways to achieving the target set, albeit with some time lag. One way to support the economy in such a high-pressure situation is through infrastructure development. A positive correlation between infrastructure development and economic development has been proved beyond doubt. Infrastructure development also supports socio-cultural development. The present paper is an attempt of understand the trends and status of infrastructure development in India. It is very important to take stock of the domestic situation in a global context, to have a more realistic picture and understand the gaps. The second part of the paper presents a comparative picture of infrastructure development in India and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the dynamic nexus between economic complexity index (ECI), technological development (TIN), human capital (HC) and environmental quality in India for transition towards a sustainable environment. This study is based on secondary data covering the period from 1985 to 2018. For empirical analysis, this study applied "Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology" (STIRPAT) model framework under the estimation of autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and vector error correction model (VECM) model. The empirical findings of model 1 show ECI, TIN, HC and urbanization (URB) as the helping hands to mitigate the problem of environmental degradation by shrinking the level of EF, whereas for model 2, ECI and TIN failed to influence the CO 2 emissions, but HC served as a stimulant for environmental quality enhancement by declining the level of CO 2 emissions. In contrast, GDP growth and URB strengthen the CO 2 emissions levels. Moreover, in VECM framework, estimated findings reveal that the covariables Granger-cause EF and CO 2 emissions, inferring that causality flows asynchronously from its covariables to EF and CO 2 . Impulse response function (IRF) revealed that the responses in EF and CO 2 emissions ascribed to changes in its covariables. The outcome of the study has some implications for environmental policy strategists to prepare sustainable environment policies and other responsible authorities for sustainable development goal (SDGs), academician and scholars. All the stakeholders involved in environmental economics and policymakers can evaluate this study to design proper policy framework with respect to the environment. There are few studies that explore the dynamic nexus between ECI, TIN and HC with environmental quality in the control environment of URB and GDP growth using the STIRPAT model for India., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper reviews the economic policies adopted by the Indian government under different policy regimes, provides a political economy perspective of economic growth in the country during 1950–2020 and examines the inclusiveness of the rapid economic growth in recent decades. The growth performance of the economy improved as the economy moved from inward-looking policy regime to the regimes of pro-business and pro-market policies. India's political economy was supportive of the changes in policy regime. After growing at a sluggish rate during the first three decades after 1950–1951, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated significantly after the pro-business reforms in the 1980s, and there was further acceleration after the pro-market reforms since 1991–1992. It has, however, slowed down in recent years. Nevertheless, it has not been inclusive, as the benefits of growth have not reached all sections of the population and all regions of the country equally. On the contrary, disparities in income across regions and inequalities in income, wealth and consumption among individuals have exacerbated, and the problems of unemployment and poverty have been persisting in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are well-functioning formal judicial institutions important for economic development, or can informal contracting arrangements provide adequate substitutes? This paper aims to answer this question using variation across industries in their reliance on contracts along with variation across Indian states in the average speed of courts. The identification strategy is motivated by theory from the incomplete contracting literature, in which it is argued that transactions involving relationship-specific investments are more exposed to postcontractual opportunism and hence have greater need for efficient contract enforcement. The paper finds that the interaction between state-level court efficiency and industry-level relationship specificity is highly predictive of future growth in India's formal manufacturing sector. The threat of omitted variable bias is minimized by the inclusion of state and industry fixed effects, while a number of robustness checks and placebo tests rule out competing explanations and provide additional confidence in the hypothesized mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the aggregate economic effects from India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which provides up to 100 days of labor to rural laborers at the mandated minimum wage. We examine the within-district change to nighttime lights, a proxy for economic development, and banking deposits using the staggered program rollout for identification. We find consistent and robust evidence that NREGS increased aggregate economic output by 1% to 2% per capita measured by nighttime lights. This effect, however, is not equal across districts. We observe no positive effect of the program in poorer districts, illuminating an important source of heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]